these live in these live pictures and police say there has been more than one fatality. stabbings took place nearby and shots were fired. hello. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting on bbc one in the uk and on bbc world news. a major incident is taking place in london tonight with reports of multiple casualties in different locations. armed police have closed a major bridge after a vehicle swerved off the road, hitting a number of pedestrians. police say there's been more than one fatality. officers then responded to reports of stabbings nearby and shots were fired. the first incident happened at london bridge, one of the major arteries between the north and the south of the city. the reported stabbings took place in borough market which is nearby. the british prime minister theresa may has described the incidents in london as a "potential act of terrorism." consignments on southwark street

near london bridge. —— tom symonds. police have put in a large cordon. you can see the furthest blue, flashing light, a short distance from the borough markets area. are market is a farmers market where people go for lunch. it is surrounded by bars and restaurants. it is opposite london bridge station where people go to head home after a night out in central london. putting together eyewitness reports, only eyewitness reports, which can be wrong, but the eyewitnesses we spoke to say a van ploughed into people on

the southern end of london bridge, i was told by people in a pub that it was told by people in a pub that it was on the corner of the bridge, that grey, possibly four man, got out, armed with knives. —— three, possible four men,. one was mediterranean in terms of skin colour and had a black and red top on and had a long knife. i asked if it was a breadknife sized weapon and the eyewitness said he felt it was a long kitchen knife. they ran towards london bridge and, sorry, borough markets, went and attacked people. we have reports from a security manager who looks after security in a number of the pubs and bars in that location. he said his collea g u es that location. he said his colleagues were ringing him and

telling him that people were being stabbed in the pubs and cafes. in particular at one of them, for people had been stabbed. —— four. he went out to see what was going on, thinking it was a fight, normally he would go towards that as a security person. people were running and screaming in the other direction. he said he saw three men attacking people in the bar area. he saw an injured 20—year—old woman go to the ground. some eyewitnesses said they saw police at some of these attackers. we have one unconfirmed report two men were shot dead by police. they have the job of dealing with this in the initial stages and they deal with it. they have not said anything in detail yet, but have said be vigilant and stay safe. their last twitter message was

people should be calm and vigilant and alert. there is a large police operation going on and a big cordon in place. one last thing, there will be concerns, this is an ongoing terrorist incident, that people are still attacking people. there was a report from vauxhall, but we'd don't believe people confirmed it. there isa believe people confirmed it. there is a police helicopter covering one area, so it looks to me like this incident is over. we are waiting for what the metropolitan police are going to say to confirm that. what the metropolitan police are going to say to confirm thatlj what the metropolitan police are going to say to confirm that. i can see that the cordon behing you is very quiet. we have seen pictures of people leaving areas with their hands up in an effort to clear the area. with your security knowledge, pa rt area. with your security knowledge, part of that is they are looking for

any potential attackers who might be among the crowd. this is a difficult situation for the police. they have to contain the area, a crime scene, full of clues, like items that may have been dropped by the attackers. the van needs to be cordoned off to be looked at. ijust came from manchester. they identified salman abedi within two hours. i think it can be sure forensic offices will be down the road from me heading towards the scene seeking to identify who these men are if they are among the men in borough markets, which is what we have been told by eyewitnesses. from there,

thejob is to told by eyewitnesses. from there, the job is to understand who they are, identify them, and see if they are, identify them, and see if they are connected to a list of 3000 people of interest to the security services and the police. it is a big job and thankfully the metropolitan police have been spared the front line work. it will be a long investigation for them that i suspect will go on for weeks. you just mentioned the manchester attack, another attack you have covered. put this into context in terms of the timing for us. let me go back to the attack before that, as this is now the third attack we have had this year. three very serious terrorism incidents. there was a serious terrorism incidents. there wasa similar serious terrorism incidents. there was a similar incident to this on westminster bridge. it will be familiar to those watching. it is down the road from here. they killed a police officer and shot dead him in the house of parliament. that was

the first attack. similar to this. from eyewitnesses, obviously, with caveats, a vehicle was driven into people with more than one attack, so it isa people with more than one attack, so it is a conspiracy, it seems. they we re it is a conspiracy, it seems. they were attacking members of the public indiscriminate lay according to eyewitnesses that we have spoken to. the odd one out is the middle attack the manchester arena bombing took a lot more sophisticated planning to build a device of that size, which would have needed training, materials to put the bomb together. we think that from the investigation, salman abedi potentially rented a number of flights to carry out the job of putting the device together. —— flats. that is interesting. the problem for police once one attack has happened, it is likely eventually going to spark other attacks. security services are going

to full alert. they are looking closely at what is going on behind the scenes within the potential terrorist plots they know about. they are always monitoring a number of them. there is always the risk that one attack will trigger another, as we saw in 2005. the 7/7 bombings triggered an attack in the london underground two weeks later, and thankfully that one was a failure. since the manchester attack, police services would have been very clear this could have happened. i can tell you, i have seen police in various areas of london on standby ready to go for an incident like this to happen, and now it has. thank you very much. stay with us. butjust now, i want to show you a photograph which we believe was part of the incident in borough markets. it was taken by a documentary photographer, showing two man lying on the ground, both

had been shot by police. the man closest to the camera appears to have canisters takes to his body. interestingly, that is something that has been across social media in the last hour, hour and a half. we have not been able to verify it. but there is a man lying on the ground with what appears to be canisters strapped to him. he was apparently alive when the picture was taken, but the other man was not moving. it was taken inside borough markets outside a pub. for viewers who are not familiar with this part of central london, this is an area of london where there are many pubs and bars and london where there are many pubs and bars a nd restau ra nts london where there are many pubs and bars and restaurants and food stalls close to the river thames, which is popular with londoners and tourists alike. we can see this photographer has taken this picture, a man lying

on the ground with what appears to be canisters strapped to him. interestingly, that is a detail that has come up repeatedly over the last hour or has come up repeatedly over the last hourorso, has come up repeatedly over the last hour or so, especially from diners in restaurants saying they saw a man oi’ in restaurants saying they saw a man or men approaching with things strapped to them. we can see it for ourselves now. it looks like canisters strapped to his body lying on the ground with some sort of counterterrorism officer i believe standing over him. we can see various restaurant paraphernalia, ta bles various restaurant paraphernalia, tables and stalls knocked over outside that pub. that picture has just come into us. let's go to nick quraishi who is at london bridge. just bring us up—to—date with what you saw and what witnesses have been telling us. 0k. you saw and what witnesses have been telling us. ok. i got here it must

bea telling us. ok. i got here it must be a couple of hours ago, perhaps more. there was an intense police activity ongoing when i arrived. we will have a look now. things have calmed down. but every time i talk to you, things can flare up again quite quickly. when i arrived at the scene, the cordon had widened. we have actually, since i started broadcasting, we have moved further out. police were literally shouting at people to get away, move away. there was so much panic, it seemed, at the time. and this is a saturday night in the uk, a busy area, as we have already established, bars and pubs, people enjoying themselves. you would understand a number of people were around at the scene not knowing what is going on. the police we re very

knowing what is going on. the police were very keen to tell them to move, and move quite quickly. into the air now and you can here a police helicopter which has been in the sky for quite a while. —— hear. a couple of people have come up to me and said they have been moved a little away from the scene. all i have been told by witnesses is they have been moved from the scene and they were not aware of what is going on. police had to shift them because they wanted to get out of what they perceived to be a danger zone. i have to say, shortly after i arrived here, an hourand have to say, shortly after i arrived here, an hour and three quarters ago, i heard what appeared to be four gunshots, and they happens not too far away. that can be corroborated eyes of the evidence we have had the night. the police may have had the night. the police may

have opened fire. we have not had confirmation. we do know that more than one person died on the attack on london bridgejust behind me followed by what seemed to be multiple stabbings over the road, if you like, in borough markets. went something like this happened, you are not sure if these are linked. —— when. because of the proximity of where these attacks took place, it is clear something was going on. police have linked them, referring to this as terrorism. something appeared to happen in the vauxhall area south of where we are, but that was discounted as having any linked to this, any terrorist link. theresa may, the british prime minister, tomorrow morning, in the morning, she will be chairing a meeting of the government emergency cobra committee. such is the seriousness of what has happened here. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has described what happened in the past

few hours as brutal and shocking. there is more than one crime scene. you will understand details are still coming in about what is happening. the metropolitan police are yet to give us a full update on the latest situation. however, i can say there are some flashing blue lights. you may be able to spot one. that is a police vehicle. that suggest that for the time being, things appear to be coming down in this area. it could be that further down the road, near the shard, the iconic london building behind me, and london bridge itself, things are easing off there. thank you very much. nick quraishi, who is near london bridge. lots of reaction coming in this evening. first of all, let's go back to the photograph sentin all, let's go back to the photograph sent in by a photographer. it shows what we believe is a potential

attacker lying on the ground, shot by police. the key detail, though, in this photograph, is that he has what appears to be canisters wrapped around his body. he has canisters wrapped around his body. officers arthur brown dickenmann that picture. that was taken in the borough markets area. —— officers surrounded his body. canisters are strapped to him. that is a geek our people have picked up on in the last hour or two. witnesses in restau ra nts hour or two. witnesses in restaurants in that area are saying they saw men, or maybe a man, approaching with what appeared to be cannisters strapped to his body. there is that photograph. itjust came in to the bbc in the last few

minutes. another eyewitness. john stokes, a tour guide on a london bus. good evening. where were you, what did you see? we were approaching london bridge with the bias and i was preparing the tourists on the bus to get their cameras out to get a photo of tower bridge from london bridge. as we we re bridge from london bridge. as we were coming the bridge the driver andi were coming the bridge the driver and i noticed two taxis on the left—hand side and someone lying on the pavement. and wejust left—hand side and someone lying on the pavement. and we just assumed that perhaps that person may have been accidentally knocked over or something. as we continued along the bridge at a slow pace like we always

do we spotted another person lying on the pavement and we became a bit alarmed with that and then a third person and we started to think well, maybe it may have been a gang fight, because i know that area does have a few gangs. then when we saw a few more people lying down and people running up towards them we were quite concerned and eventually we had to stop the bus halfway across the bridge because the traffic had come to a stop. there were no police at the time we arrived. we are assuming it must have happened within two or three minutes prior to us within two or three minutes prior to us arriving on the bridge. i attempted to call 999 and the police

did arrive within about five minutes after we stopped the bus. and then sometime later there were lots and lots of police cars racing down to the bridge as well as ambulances and then someone in uniform came up to oui’ then someone in uniform came up to our bus and knocked on the door and told everyone on the bus to run. so all of the tourist on our bus ran for their lives and we lost track of them because i was trying to muster them because i was trying to muster them together. we were all told to go to the far end of the bridge. not the borough market ended but the other of end, towards the monument. and then what we noticed was that most of the blue light seemed to be in the vicinity of borough market so our driver and in the vicinity of borough market so ourdriverandi in the vicinity of borough market so our driver and i assumed that whatever or whoever it was was

happening right there outside our markets. we saw a few people being given cpr by people. it was certainly not people in uniform. and thatis certainly not people in uniform. and that is it. so we had to leave our bus there. our driver has now gone home and ijust bus there. our driver has now gone home and i just arrived bus there. our driver has now gone home and ijust arrived home about two minutes ago. we were unable to move our bus because it is part of the area of the crime scene for a so, yeah, our bus is there and we don't know how long it will be staying there for, possibly a few days. we are glad you are safe. you say you saw people being treated in the road. have you any idea of the number, how many people were affected 7 number, how many people were affected? i counted eight. the

driver and i saw eight people lying down on the pavement. some looked like they were lying on the actual road, rather than on the pavement itself, on the road itself. the problem is the driver was concentrating on her driving and i had a microphone in my hand so i took my attention off my work and i was trained to do two things at once, find out what was happening around us and then the people u psta i rs around us and then the people upstairs on the bus were peering over the side of the bus and they saw all the people lying there. we came toa saw all the people lying there. we came to a stage where many of the ladies on the bus and some of the children were crying and we were told to run so everybody ran and thatis told to run so everybody ran and that is it. ijust got home now and i don't know when we will get our bus back. what was the sense of

urgency from the police officer. you say they were banging on the bus door, did you get the sense that you needed to run for your life or they just wanted you out of the area to deal with the situation. just wanted you out of the area to deal with the situationlj just wanted you out of the area to deal with the situation. i thought there may have been a car bomb or there may have been a car bomb or there may have been a car bomb or there may have been explosives around and they were just trying to get us out of the area for our own safety. i do know that when we got to the other end of the bridge where we we re to the other end of the bridge where we were told to go a policeman walked past me with a sniffer dog so iam assuming walked past me with a sniffer dog so i am assuming that the dog was probably sniffing for explosives. so thatis probably sniffing for explosives. so that is about all i know, having been on the bus, so i probably don't know quite as much as what the people on the pavement... no, your

account is very vivid. you touched on it earlier, john, presumably you had tourists on this bus. to suddenly encounter injured people on the road and on the pavement and then have officer is banging on the door in telling you to run, what was the reaction, not only your reaction but the reaction of your guests? honestly i was more concerned about our guests because i don't flap so easily that this guy was banging so hard, he probably made the situation worse because, you know, he was banging on the door and saying run, run, run! move! move! salai said to the people that in the bus that they needed to get off and they heard shouting and, you know, some of the women and children were crying and, imean, women and children were crying and, i mean, they were from all over the

world and they were standing on my bus looking at all of these bodies lying all over the place. it was a shocking sight for people on holiday and on top of one of london's most iconic riches. london bridge is known all over the world for the so it...| known all over the world for the so it... i don't know what to say because it is so weird. i remember 9/11. we because it is so weird. i remember 9/ii. we were on london bridge as well when 9/ii happened and many of the americans were getting phone calls on their cellphones and they we re calls on their cellphones and they were saying things like oh, my god, oh, my god. and all these years later, another situation on the same bridge. it is unbelievable. clearly very upsetting and we appreciate you speaking to us here on bbc news. that wasjohn speaking to us here on bbc news. that was john stokes, speaking to us here on bbc news. that wasjohn stokes, a tour guide ona that wasjohn stokes, a tour guide on a london bus when he saw all the

injuries on the street. let's now go to an account from an eyewitness of the attack, a man called girard and a warning that some viewers may find some of what he describes distressing. i walk up to london bridge, pass them bank and the next minute i saw a geezer on the floor saying he's been stabbed. his mate came back saying that someone stabbed his mate. next i saw guys with knives and stubbing a girl. i could not do nothing, mate. —— stabbing a girl. they attacked her and stabbed another guy. everybody run, they are terrorists! they are stabbing everyone! i followed run, they are terrorists! they are stabbing everyone! ifollowed them and went down towards borough market and went down towards borough market and then we got here and they started running in full they ran into the tavern, they stabbed a bouncer, they ran in all the pubs and bars, i cannot remember all of

them but they were stabbing everyone. things were being thrown at them, i tried to help people but at them, i tried to help people but at them, i tried to help people but at the end of the day, i was defenceless. what did you actually see them do? they were running up and saying that this is for allah, they ran up and stabbed a girl may be ten times. she was asking for help that i could not help her. i tried to pick up a chair but there was a bike liked to it. i tried to frighten them but i could not do anything. you will see me under cctv at borough market chasing them, throwing bottles and glasses. i know it was silly but i was trying to save people ‘s lives. it was silly but i was trying to save people 's lives. did they try and attack you ? save people 's lives. did they try and attack you? do you have an injury? they tried to stab me. i threw things at them and hit one of them on the head, on the back and

then they ran towards me so i ran away. i slipped over, then they ran towards me so i ran away. islipped over, had i then they ran towards me so i ran away. i slipped over, had i slipped overi away. i slipped over, had i slipped over i would have been dead. joining me now as a reporter who has been monitoring this all evening for us. lots of reaction coming in from political leaders. let's start with the mayor of london. ten minutes ago, the mayor said that this situation is still unfolding and he would ask all londoners and visitors to remain calm and vigilant. he goes on to say that this was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent londoners and visitors to our city injoining their londoners and visitors to our city in joining their saturday night. this started just after ten o'clock on saturday night. he says i condemn it in the strongest possible terms. there is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts. we have also had international reaction. the us state department has released a

statement saying that all americans stand in solidarity with the people of the united kingdom. they go on to say that the united states stands ready to provide assistance that authorities in the uk may request. i have also been looking at a few social media accounts of the bars and pubs around the vicinity of borough market. they would have been packed on a saturday night. in the daytime it is a food market that after closing it is a nightspot. many accounts of various pubs and clu bs many accounts of various pubs and clubs saying that a terrible incident has occurred and they are deeply saddened. another says that customers and staff are safe and have been evacuated. another one, a pub called the greedy goat says they are praying for their friends and colleagues. theresa may issued a statement a couple of hours ago now saying that following updates from police and security officials, she can confirm that the terrible

incident is being treated as a potential act of terrorism. subsequent to this statement the metropolitan police issued their own statement saying that 25 past midnight london time they confirmed that the incident at london bridge and borough market were being treated as terrorist incidents. there was a little confusion earlier in the evening because they were talking about a potential third scene at vauxhall, another area in south london. subsequently they issued a statement saying that that investigation was not related to this incident. listen to the geography of where this has happened, for viewers who are not familiar with this part of london? london bridge is in central london heading out towards the south—eastern area of the city full of where the first reports came in of where the first reports came in of this white van driving off the road and into pedestrians on the pavement right next to london bridge as you walk south, with about 30

seconds, you will hear borough market. it is a popular night spot as well as a train station for both the underground and the overground. things are looking much calmer we can tell, from the body language and demeanour of the officers standing there. it differs from what we saw an hourorso there. it differs from what we saw an hour or so ago. in terms of how they were trying to clear those areas. absolutely. dramatic pictures earlier of the memos of the public who had been kept inside many of those restaurants and bars in the borough market area being asked to leave by police through accordant with their hands on their head. many of them looking in a state of shock. we saw some kitchen staff dressed in their whites leaving, clearly being asked to get out of the restaurant and pub. these are things you are not used in central london. this is

bbc news with this breaking news humming from london. i will hand over to my colleague. hello. this is a special coverage. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting on bbc one in the uk and on bbc world news. i'm ben brown. there have been multiple casualties. in the last few minutes, there have been reports of explosions and also gunshots as well. we willjust show you a map of where two separate incidents occurred, which may be related. this is london bridge, one of the main arteries crossing the river thames. that is where a vehicle, believed to be a white van, was driven at high speed, 50 miles